The
most admired man of his age, George Washington was president when
religious freedom was enshrined in the Bill of Rights. For these
reasons and more, his claim to constitutional authority is considerably
more impressive than that of the brilliant but eccentric Thomas
Jefferson — whose antagonistic "wall of separation" between church and
state has become constitutional dogma. Now, in "Under God: George
Washington and the Question of Church and State," Tara Ross and Joseph
C. Smith Jr. show how Washington's sharply contrasting — and more
authoritative — views suggest a more reasonable interpretation of the
First Amendment that is consistent with religion's importance to the
enterprise of democracy.

As
the authors conclusively demonstrate, the Father of Our Country
considered religion essential for the virtue required of self-governing
citizens — and therefore, though he was careful not to favor particular
sects, he believed that a democracy must not merely accommodate
religion but encourage it. To trace the evolution of these ideas, Ross
and Smith combine a study of Washington's thought with an appendix
containing the full texts of his letters, speeches and documents on
issues of church and state. They present his views chronologically,
devoting a chapter to each stage of his career: young officer, colonial
legislator, commander in chief of the Continental Army, head of the
Constitutional Convention, and president of the United States. An
epilogue explains how Jefferson's separationist perspective achieved
its disproportional influence on the modern Supreme Court.